“You once told me that marriage is a lifetime,” he said. “You were right. So I do not ask in haste now, nor from jealousy, nor from fear of another man. I ask because I have seen enough of you to know that my life would be richer, wiser, and happier with you in it. I ask because I want you at Pemberley, not as an ornament to my name, but as my partner, my equal, my dearest friend. I ask because I cannot imagine children of mine more blessed than to have you for their mother. And I ask because, though I hardly deserve the answer I hope for, I shall spend my life trying to be worthy of it.”
He drew in one last breath, then bowed before her with all the reverence of a man placing his whole future in her keeping.
“Miss Elizabeth Bennet, will you do me the very great honor of becoming my wife?”
The garden seemed to still around them.
A drop of rainwater fell from the yew onto the path. Somewhere nearer the house, Lydia laughed, then Richard’s voice rose in mock protest. Inside, no doubt, Mrs. Bennet waswatching whatever window might give her the best advantage, and Mr. Bennet was pretending not to.
Darcy heard none of it clearly.
Elizabeth stood before him, cheeks flushed, eyes bright, lips parted as though the answer had risen to them and needed only breath to become real.
He waited, hardly daring to move, hardly daring to hope, while the whole of his heart hung upon her reply.
∞∞∞
Elizabeth had thought herself prepared.
She had known the question was coming, had invited it even, and spent two days turning over possible answers in her mind with a strange mixture of impatience and trembling joy. She had imagined herself composed, perhaps a little teasing, perhaps a little overcome, but still capable of receiving Darcy’s proposal with the dignity due such a moment.
She had not imaginedthis.
She had not imagined the way his voice would soften upon her name, nor the way each word seemed chosen not to impress her, but to give her something true. He spoke of love without flourish, of mistakes without pride, of duty without using it as a shield. He promised not a life without difficulty, but one in which he would not leave her alone inside it. He spoke of her judgment as something he valued, her happiness as something that belonged within his own duty, her place at Pemberley not as ornament but as partner.
Partner.
The word moved through Elizabeth with a warmth so deep that she could scarcely breathe around it.
All her life, she had been useful. Useful to her father, though he seldom thanked her for it. Useful to her mother, though Mrs. Bennet more often complained than noticed. Useful to her sisters, to the tenants, to Longbourn, to the Gardiner children, to everyone who needed her to be steady, clever, capable, or brave. She had not minded usefulness; indeed, she had made a kind of pride from it. But Darcy looked at her and saw more than a solution to problems. He saw someone to stand beside him. Someone whose thoughts mattered. Someone whose burdens he would not allow her to carry unseen.
Her heart filled so quickly that it hurt.
He loved her.
He made her feel loved.
Not as Jane was loved, for beauty and sweetness, nor as Lydia wished to be loved, for liveliness and admiration. Darcy loved the very qualities that had so often made Elizabeth troublesome to others—her opinions, her quickness, her unwillingness to be managed, her habit of seeing what no one else wished to notice. He did not wish to tame her into something easier. He wished to bring her home.
And she loved him.
She loved the careful honor that had sometimes made him severe. She loved the tenderness he tried to hide and the awkwardness that appeared whenever feeling outran composure. She loved the way he cared for Georgiana, the way he listened, the way he had learned from pain instead of allowing it to make him cruel. She loved that he had frightened her, hurt her, and still come back with the humility to ask forgiveness and the courage to offer everything again.
By the time he finished, Elizabeth’s eyes were wet, and her answer pressed so hard against her heart that words felt too small for it.
Darcy waited before her, solemn and pale with hope.
She looked up at him.
Then, without answering, she took his hand and drew him quickly behind the shelter of the hedge.
“Miss Elizabeth?”
There was one startled note in his voice, but Elizabeth did not give him time for more. She rose on her toes, rested one gloved hand lightly against his coat, and kissed him.
It was her first kiss.
She knew it shocked him. She felt the sudden stillness of his whole body, the breath he drew but did not release, the absolute astonishment of a man who had planned every word and not one moment beyond them. His lips were warm beneath hers, softer than she expected, and the brief contact sent a tremor through her so swift and bright that she drew back almost at once, not from regret but from the overwhelming realization that she had kissed him and wanted to do it again.
